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In the last few weeks a few things have changed/ improved on the airbrush front and as a result I have some more finished models to share.

About 3 weeks ago, I was having a hard time because I required an airbrush to finish the gray tones on my models and I couldn’t paint the other parts before this step was completed.

The way things stood at that point regarding Badger and warranty it felt like I wasn’t going to get a new airbrush, which made me rather unhappy. I turned to the net (facebook groups /twitter) to share my story, and received more feedback than I had expected to be honest.

People shared their own bad experiences and gave tips on which brands / models of airbrush were known to be more reliable and such.

After reading the responses I decided to go for the sure thing and i ordered a new airbrush, an Iwata HP-C. I haven’t had any regret about it since. Great airbrush, great performance and easier to clean / maintain that the badger I had.

Shortly after posting my story on the net, Badger decided they would replace the airbrush after all. (I like to think the internet has an effect, but who knows)

This is positive, as it means they have kept to their claim of replacing broken airbrushes, and it means that if I ever have an issue with my Iwata, I have a spare.

The day I received my Iwata, I started using it instantly, which has resulted in a small painting marathon. The goal was to have as much as possible ready by Clogcon, which is this weekend.

I’m still working on the unit of winterguard and Joe (which I hope to finish tonight), but i already have this picture to share in the meanwhile:

My painting is progressing at a steady pace, I finished Butcher 3 and the Pikemen.

I made the flag swappable, the flag is the only difference between a black dragon and a regular unit. (Sure there are different shields but those arn’t required.) This way the only thing I need to do to change between ua’s is swap the flag, and transporting it is way easier.

And I took some pictures of all the models that are done with some more daylight:

I was working on the last few solo’s I need to be able to field my Butch 3 list without using proxies, and then this happened:

For those who don’t know much about airbrushes, no that part isn’t supposed to come off.

Pretty sad about it right now, it has a warranty so it’s not going to be a financial issue as I won’t have to buy a new one, however I will be behind on my painting.

A while back, when I ordered my desert bases for my Skorne, I also ordered forest bases. It saved me on transport costs and I had possible use for them with Ret or Circle, so why not.

When I decided to start a Khador force, I contemplated my options for bases and I just couldn’t find ice or winter bases I liked. Then I realized I could just add snow to the forest bases and it all made sense.

I applied a coating of GW castellan green with the airbrush on the entire base, then I painted the tree stumps and branches using GW Dryad Bark and P3 Rucksack Tan for the interior. The entire surface was then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade.

I then coated the areas who would end up covered in snow with Vallejo Dead White.

I had a few boxes of the GW snow flock sitting around. I first tried applying it like normal flock (watered down pva glue and add flock on top) but that didn’t turn out right at all.

I then found a vid on youtube showing how to mix pva glue, water and the flock on a palette before applying it to the base. This way you can add a thicker paste to the base, which is far better to work with and instantly shows better results.

I looked at the dried result this morning and I did add another layers of snow using the same method. I hope I can add the jacks to their bases tonight.

Khador has some really nice looks, but bright red is pretty much what everyone uses and that makes it less desirable. Bright red is the stock scheme so no surprise there really.

In the end I got a golden tip from a friend who suggested white grey. I primed in black, then did a basecoat of P3 Greatcoat Grey. After that I used GW Administratum grey mixed with P3 Greatcoat Grey. I then switched to pure Administratum grey.

From the Administratum grey I switched immediately to GW Uthuan Grey and applied a few coats until I was up to the color I wanted. I then added an edge highlight of Vallejo Dead White.

The metals are P3 Cold Steel, P3 Pig Iron and GW Hashut Copper. I only added a wash of GW nuln oil after the base coat.

The red on the Khador logos is done using a base coat of Khorne red, highlighted with a few layers of Mephiston Red.

The furnace glow was done using P3 Hearthfire and a GW yellow wash.

I only have some in progress pics of the jacks right now as I want to take the final pictures when they are on their finished bases.

I have been playing Skorne for a good while no wand while I love the faction and will keep putting them on the table in the future, I find the weakness vs Cryx to be an obstacle I can’t cross.

This doesn’t mean I think Skorne is defenseless against Cryx, I just don’t like the odds and more specifically Skarre1 with 30 banes is a question I just can’t find the answer to.

The less versatile playstyle compared to other factions is also contribution to me wanting to shake things up. The beat face approach is cool and rewarding however it becomes rather bland after several months.

The fact that Mordrikaar doesn’t seem to click for me is one of my issues. This is a personal problem which has nothing to do with how capable the model is.

I dabbled with several lists for Mordrikaar, even played some games with lists for eHexy and pZaal but they all fell short in my opinion. I’m not a top player so the idea that I would have to play my A game to compete with someone playing their D game doesn’t sit right with me.

I was tempted by switching factions a few times, my elves were calling from my shelves, my Cryx were seducing me into serving the dragon father once more, but in the end I wanted something new, something different. Khador isn’t a first world country faction, but it has all the pieces.

Casters like Butcher3, pIrusk, eZerkova, eSorcha interest me and I’m planning on exploring what they can do. We have a local Khador player who makes them tick extremely well, so I finally have a faction where I can learn by watching as well.

Spamming infantry (and thus spending time on activations) will be a challenge. I have gotten better in managing my time when playing seriously, I’m still a disaster in casual games because I just talk have fun and forget about the ticking clock… I feel that my time with Skorne has taught me a range of valuable things that will transfer into my future Khador play.

I also realized when checking which models I required for my initial lists, that I already owned a large portion wince I already owned the Nyss, the Boomhowlers and a range of Merc solos.

As per the usual I will likely end up owning the entire faction, but I’m pushing myself to be a bit more conservative at first. I want to explore the pairing our local Khador player has used before and then see where I end up.

What draws me into the faction at this point is the more generalist feel, no real focus on either ranged or melee, no focus on pure spell slinging or making the feat stick. Just coherent army compositions complementing each other and having the different options available while not being pushed towards either side.

If I get enough things painted by the end of the week so I don’t need an abundance of proxy models, I might get my first few games in this week.

I don’t mind playing fist a few more times so there’s no real pressure.

I’m going to post a picture of my painting progress so far with the Khador jacks next.

In my airbrush post I added a teaser for a custom objective I was creating.

The goal was to create a ruined statue of sorts. Which would fit in with most of my armies. I saw some good builds using the Convergence large wreck marker as a base.

For the best effect I wanted an angelic figure for the statue. At first I experimented with the Clockwork Angels, and they didn’t look bad, they just looked rather tiny on the large base.

Looking for a larger angelic figuring I ended up with Aurora’s model. I had the model unpainted gathering dust for a while. I’m not saying she’s bad or anything don’t get me wrong, but I don’t like playing her so to me this was an unused model.

I’m happy I decided to use Aurora as the result is pretty cool.

I applied the paint on the wreck marker with the airbrush and I also applied the silver to the wings using the airbrush. The other metals and washes were done with a brush.

So I decided it was finally time for me to start using an airbrush. The main reason would be that it saves me quite a bit of time when painting and certain results are much harder to pull off when using a brush.

I’ll still remain a dedicated brush user while experimenting with the airbrush, I can think of a multitude of things I simply won’t be able to pull off with an airbrush for a long while.

To get me started I asked others who are more experienced with an airbrush to give me some directions on what to buy. Something I would advise everyone starting out, as it can be a bit tricky to choose the correct setup when starting out with no prior experience.

The airbrush I got is the Badger Renegade, a dual action airbrush with a top feed.

I can confirm that you really need to tune it a bit when you first use the airbrush. My first assumption was that it would be set somewhat ok so I could start spraying straight away, however this is not the case. Fortunately tuning the setup of the airbrush isn’t rocket science.

I’m not 100% sure which model compressor I have so I’ll get to that in a future article.

I started out giving priming a try. When I primed my minis before I used a spray can, and I sprayed from 4 directions (front, back and both sides). This meant spraying one side on one or more mini’s, letting it all dry for a good 5 minutes, turning the models and spraying the next side. As a result priming a model would always take me anywhere between 30-40 minutes.

Because with spray priming I noticed that black primer made it much harder to see the details, and white primer isn’t always a good plan when the end result needs to be dark, I always used grey primer.

At the LGS they only had the black airbrush primer in larger size bottles (in stock, I’m sure the can order the other one’s) so I decided to give the black primer a go. I primed a unit and was amazed at how the details were all visible with the black primer.

I will most likely use black / gray or white depending on the final result I’m going for, but it’s really nice to know that with the airbrush I can have such a nice result when priming in black.

Since I felt I wanted to see just how amazing airbrushes could be I decided to make my first test layers yellow. I wanted to test out a new scheme for Convergence and at the same time see what my options were for applying yellow (a color notorious for not being easy to paint).

The first conclusion was that even over a black primer yellow covered quite well using the airbrush, which was an amazing thing to find out.

I experimented a bit more and while in the end the shadows I was hoping to create were far from what I was hoping to achieve I did manage to get a nice color transition on the model and I was even able to pull off a slight osl effect. Applying that osl made me realize I won’t be doing this on the models I’m trying to get above tabletop quality as it can ruin a model that is otherwise painted really well, and I want to practice more.

Still the result is not too bad for a first try. I did some panel/ edge highlighting to make it pop more ofc.

Painting yellow was fun, but a more practical test was required to really see if I could start applying airbrush painting for my regular painting schemes.

I still hadn’t gotten around to painting my Helldiver so he was my primary victim. He was already primed so no priming to do but no real problem.

I normally base coat the armor plates on Cryx jacks with Caliban Green and then layer over it with Castellan green. Now I repeated this process using the airbrush.

The result was more than ok, it saved me time and it was smooth as silk. I applied the usual washes and edge highlights to the plates and finished the rest of the model as before with the brush (too much detail work/ not using masking yet so airbrush was out of the question for the other areas of the model.

The result can be seen below (and I personally think it’s a good result)

Tonight I will start working on an objective marker I have Created using the Aurora model and a Convergence wreck marker. I may even try out using some pigments on it, no sure yet.

My interest in Convergence was rekindled when I saw the faction being played at our local SR last month. I had made some attempts to build lists before but I couldn’t find real solutions or the lists didn’t really appeal to me.

The main problem in all of the list building was “what will my Cryx drop be” and “How do I make a Cryx drop which isn’t so narrow focused that it’s useless against most other factions.

When I saw Lucant combined with 2 battle engines tailored vs Cryx, but with options vs other factions / casters I saw something I hadn’t come up with at all.

I saw it paired up with Syntherion, and tested out both lists.

The Lucant list was ok on the Lucant + 2X Battle engine, but the other parts needed some tweaks. I switched around the heavy’s, changed the unit setup etc., and I now have a result that may be my final pick. The only issue is that I still need to run it vs Cryx a few times. Once I know how it carries out its main task, I can start looking for side options.

The Syntherion list was good, but I and Syntherion never really managed to click on a decent level, making it hard for me to play him. This meant I had 2 ways to continue, change the list to be more in line with my way of thinking / playing or switch to a different caster.

Syntherion is best played in tier and his playstyle isn’t something you can switch up dramatically, so keeping him in the running became problematic. This made me look towards other casters. Mother is powerful, however she isn’t my thing as such, Aurora doesn’t make the cut for me either. This is personal and by no means reflects their capabilities / power level.

With 1 caster picked (Lucant) and 3 others not making the cut, Axis was all that remained. He has potential for sure, I just hadn’t given him a chance (again because before I was looking for that anti-Cryx drop).

The first thing that came to mind was his tier list, because well it’s just bonkers. 4 foundries means 12 returning models each turn, which is huge. I’m slightly disappointed in the foundries when I compare them to Neurosurgeons, placement within 3″ would be much easier and prevent placement issues.

My version of the Axis theme force has such an amount of bodies it makes Cryx infantry spam look small at times. And ofc this is where the placement issues come in. If the field is completely full, adding more bodies can be problematic. 3″ placement would allow placing models in front of other models, while within 1 means nothing van be between the foundry and the target location.

Don’t get me wrong foundries are awesome, they could be straight up amazing with 3”.

As you can see lots of small based infantry everywhere. Their efficiëncy is higher than their medium based variants. (Personal opinion) And ofc the Axis theme doesn’t allow medium based units, and that makes the choice easier.

Both lists seem to have limited ranged capabilities, however sprays should not be underestimated. Both lists have enough recursion to take an Alfa strike to some degree. When the Alfa strike is received and blunted by recursion / high enough armor/ Def, and then followed up by POW 13 sprays, it feels like you were on the receiving end of an Alfa strike while you in fact launched the Alfa yourself.

The Axis tier list is a beauty. When you have advanced deployment for the bulk of your forces, it can be hard for your opponent to deploy based on your troop placement, as all you put down is a couple of jacks, foundries and a caster.

More on tactics and play experiences later, at this point is have just a few games played and while fun and successful those games contained a boatload of misplays on my end. The fact that with those mistakes it was a pleasant experience means it can only improve.

Now for the hobby side of things, having a list with 50 small based infantry models means you need 50 small based infantry models. Previous to my dabbling in Axis tier list experiments I owned 20 of those models, meaning I am currently working on 30 more.

I chose the normal Convergence paint scheme when I first started the faction, and I still like the way it looks, however I am thinking of repainting it all into something less standard.

No real idea what that will be like, I will be playing around with my airbrush once it arrives and then I’ll decide. Currently a Yellow scheme is winning me over.

As for right now I’m doing some major cleaning as Convergence models are still kings of flash and mold lines. I see improvements compared to the first batch I assembled, but it’s still way behind compared to the metal sculpts and other plastic sculpts I have painted up from the PP range.

When compared to the new plastic for the battle engine, it’s especially dire. The new plastic is wonderful, no flash or mold lines, I even assembled the entire model without a single drop of glue. Ofc I’ll have to glue it but this is really nice for painting, as I can assemble the model to check if there are some mold lines to be taken care of and I can paint the parts one by one.

I will receive my airbrush in the following weeks, so I am aiming to get better results when painting.

I also decided that having all those models meant I should do some small amount of converting.

Here are some pictures of how things look atm:

I gave my Reductors some more POW 13 looking weapons.

And since I was missing some regular heads and had spare leader heads, I decided to make the weapon the defining feature of the leading model.

You may have noticed the models I posted here also need to go through more cleaning. I have currently cleaned 8/32 models and I have been cleaning for hours. So yea it’ll take a while.

For the 2 new foundries, I wanted something special. I was looking into various types of tank treads but I couldn’t really find a set that wasn’t overpriced or required me to order overseas, which meant the import fee would make it overpriced.

The set I ended up using for the project contained both the weapons I used for the reductors and the tank treads for the foundries.

The result is different and I like it so far.

So the next few days (possibly weeks) I’ll spend cleaning up the infantry models. If the airbrush arrives soon, I’ll start doing some airbrush practice and hopefully I’ll be able to paint up a test model.